


in death, we meet again

by localspacepirate



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Multi, Skywalker Family Feels, skywalkers, the chosen one, the skywalker family makes me cry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:00:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22826026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacepirate/pseuds/localspacepirate
Summary: not even death can stop the skywalker family.a series of one-shots of the skywalker family, and their adventures in the world between ours and the Force.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ben Solo, Anakin Skywalker & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Anakin Skywalker, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45
Collections: Star Wars





	in death, we meet again

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys!! this is a little piece I whipped up when I was in my feels listening to my skywalker family playlist, and I thought I'd post it and make it into a mini-series. it's mostly going to consist of one-shots of the skywalker family messing around in the afterlife, and if you have any scenes you'd like to see, let me know!! (my next plan is for an all in good fun lightsaber battle between a certain two hot-headed skywalker boys)

Ben imagined death would hurt more. He imagined the same fear when Rey stabbed him, the hopelessness that shrouded his body, reminding him that he was creating a world to live in because he had no one when he died. He ran from his mother, betrayed his father — the dead wouldn’t welcome him. They had no reason to.

And yet, when the warmth of Rey’s body faded, trickling away like droplets trailing down his back, a new warmth replaced her. A sun: a foreign one he’d yet to feel in his travels across the galaxy. He would’ve thought them to be the flames of the eternal tortue he deserved had they not tickled his cheeks and eyelids, coaxing him to consciousness.

When he woke, he smelled seasalt. Unlike that of the ruins of the Death Star, less harsh, less biting. Only a gentle breeze running through his hair and clearing his lungs, helping him breathe in and out. His eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks before he finally opened his eyes, tense at the beauty around him. Stone architecture formed a balcony and through the pillars, water glistened in the sunlight. Vines crept around the stone, tangled in each other, and their shadows speckled the floor like little dark moons. In the corner of the railing, a tree stood tall, branches hanging over the water and the ground, shielding his clothing from overheating in the sun.

Who knew that his death would be so captivating?

“Ben?” A gentle, unfamiliar voice called out from behind him, and in spite of the beauty around him, dread weighed on his shoulders. 

This would be the end. Just as he grew comfortable with the beauty, it’d be taken away.

He scrambled to his feet and turned around, catching sight of a woman only a couple years younger than him. The beauty of the surroundings suited her. Curly brown hair cascaded down her back, only the top half tied into a bun at the back of her head. She wore a blue dress, and had it not been embellished with gold, he would’ve let himself imagine she’d wrapped a piece of the sky around her. 

He’d never seen her before, and yet, he couldn’t help but to recognize her: the softness of her face, the grace with which she held herself, the gentle power in her eyes. She was everything his Uncle Luke had been before.

“Oh, Ben.”

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, and before he could say anything, she launched her body at his. She nearly knocked them down, arms wrapped around his neck as she yanked his head down, hiding it in her shoulder.

“My sweet grandson, we knew you’d find your way,” her words were only whispers, but they rang in his ears like the stomps of an AT&T. 

Grandson. Grandson. Grandson.

“Are you-?” He couldn’t bring himself to ask, and she only tightened her arms around him, holding him with a strength he’d never felt.

Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around her waist, and released some of the tension in his body, relaxing. He’d never felt so vulnerable and powerful.

Behind her, a figure in familiar smuggler’s brown stepped from behind a pillar, and the guilt returned as his father eyes shone. Like he’d been crying.

“Ben.”

“Dad.”

His grandmother released him, standing protectively at his side, and Han stepped forward, reaching out to press his hand to Ben’s cheek. The calluses sparked memories of the stories his father would tell him of great big creatures he smuggled through star systems, of blasters he’d held that tried to kill him, of the carbon freezing that left its scars. Suddenly, he was a little boy again, using the Force to push the covers off of his body as his father chuckled in front of him.

He wanted so badly to apologize.

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Han smiled and dropped his hand.

“I think there is.”

From behind his father, a figure in cream-colored robes emerged into the light, and Ben’s heart rate picked up at the sternness on his uncle’s expression.

“I am so sorry, Ben,” the sternness faded as Luke stepped forward, hands clasped in front of him, “I failed you. I failed everything I knew. Everything I taught you.”

Ben struggled for words, his lips parting as he slowly shook his head. The roots of the rage he’d cultivated had been torn from the ground, and now, he couldn’t be angry with his uncle.  
He brought his hand up, meaning for a gesture of understanding but from behind Luke, an older woman stepped out, and Ben couldn’t help the tears that streamed down his face.

Leia’s eyes met her sons, the familiar blue a ghost that haunted his dreams more and more as he dove further into the dark. 

“M-m-m-” he stammered over the words, quiet tears growing until they were sobs. 

Leia walked forward and wrapped her arms around him, drawing him in tightly the air left his lungs. But he didn’t care. He dropped to his knees, hands hanging at his sides as he sobbed into her shoulder. He felt her hands comb through his hair, warm tears spilling from her cheeks onto his until he couldn’t tell which were his and which were hers.

“I know, my boy, I know.” 

Her hands held him close, and as though they were sharing the burden, the weights on his shoulders eased with each breath he drew in, sobbing slowing down. He craned his head back, looking up at her.

“I’m sorry, mother. I’m sorry.”

He didn’t deserve her forgiveness, and fear swelled in him that she wouldn’t offer it, but as her lips drew into a little smile, all the weight he’d felt disappeared. No Force trick he learned had ever been able to clear his soul the way his mother had.

“We’re together now. You had the strength to do what I knew you could. I’m so proud of you, Ben.”

“We’re all proud of you.” Han’s hand rested on his shoulder, and Ben slowly nodded, gathering himself until his breaths were steady and the tears stopped.

Leia released her grip on him just enough for him to rise to his feet, and Padme’s hand pressed gently on his back, her eyes trained to the large tree he noted earlier.

“Your grandfather wants to meet you.”

The words sent a chill down his spine, and he quickly turned, just as a figure leaped from the topmost branch of the tree and onto the ground in front of them.

He wore brown robes, darker than those of a Jedi, but unlike the black Ben favored. He looked younger than Ben, a head of curly dirty blonde hair and the playfulness in the way he carried himself reminding Ben of some of the boys he’d trained with. His eyes were the same blue of his mother, and in them, Ben picked apart Leia. A fire brewed in them, the thrill of a challenge he’d admired so greatly in her. But there was something else. A raging passion. Love. Ben stood slightly taller than him, but the man before him carried himself with a power Ben had never felt: not in Snoke, not in Palpatine, not even in Rey. He was the Chosen One. 

“I thought I was continuing your legacy,” the words spilled out of Ben without grace, each stumbling over the other, “by being Kylo. By learning the ways of the Sith. I thought I was becoming as strong as you once were.”

The man before him slowly nodded, his face remaining calm. So unlike the Vader Ben venerated.

“But it wasn’t strength. It was fear, and it was pain.”

“The Dark Side captivates you, intoxicates you.”

Ben nodded, his eyes flickering to the floor, “I was scared of failing you. And I’m scared I have. I’m scared I’ve failed you, grandfather.”

A hand rested on his shoulder, and warmth coursed through Ben’s body as he looked up. Anakin shook his head, the fire alight in his eyes.

“Don’t Ben. You’ve failed nobody. You’ve shown strength unlike any other. You pulled yourself from the Dark Side, clawing your way out. You did what I failed to do,”  
Anakin dropped his head, shame flickering across his face, “I failed you.”

“We both did,” Luke spoke behind him, and Ben’s heart began to pick up again. 

He remembered spending nights alone, begging his grandfather for a sign: begging him to help resist the pulling at his soul. The days he’d tripped over his own feet at his uncle’s school, trying so desperately to learn the ways of the Light side as though they’d purify the dark in him. And then he became Kylo, and he imagined this meeting over and over. How he’d yell at his uncle, how he’d make him hurt. The curses he’d spit at Anakin, trying to pull Vader out. 

But all he wanted now was to feel his mother's arms around him again.

“We’re together now,” he repeated his mother’s words, and his grandfather squeezed his shoulder before dropping his hand.

The ferocity with which Anakin held himself sparked a memory in Ben.

“Rey,” his voice swelled, panic growing, “is she okay?”

“She's with her family, now” his grandmother stepped beside him and smiled, her hand reaching down to take his, “and you're with yours.”


End file.
